Aquaculture critical to food security—Envoy
Japanese Ambassador to Malawi Shuichiro Nishioka says a multi-sectoral drought resilience programme is critical in empowering rural communities.
Nishioka said this last week when he inspected two fish ponds and micro-irrigation sites that people of Mpamasi Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Kalembo in Balaka are working on as part of a multi-sectoral recovery programme.
“Drought resilience programmes such as fish farming are important when it comes to economic empowerment among communities.
“Fish farming in this area will definitely improve efficiencies and output to meet the food demands of the constantly increasing human population happening now,” he said.
The area’s agriculture extension officer, Patrick Stanford, said the two fish ponds were constructed by people from the same area.
He said fish farming would help more people to access fish at affordable prices.
Chairperson of the fish ponds in the village, Frank Zagwa, commended government, World Food Programme (WFP) and Concern Universal for their financial and technical support.
He said: “We have now engaged village heads here to protect these fish ponds by establishing by-laws.—Mana
